Waterfalls and River Gorges -- Watkins Glen, Ithaca Falls, and Buttermilk Creek

-- Watkins Glen State Park --

Watkins Glen State Park is located just south of Seneca Lake, which is one of the finger lakes. The city of Geneva is at the other side of the lake (see the map below). Watkins Glen is about 70 miles northwest of the Binghamton area where I stayed last night. 

The finger lakes were created by retreating glaciers. Watkins Glen was south of the glaciers, and when the glaciers removed the top layers of dirt and rock to the north, streams like Glen Creek hit dropoffs and became waterfalls. Over time, erosion carved out the gorge. If you want to read more about the geology, click here to retrieve a document.

According to the document, "Glen Creek flows North into Seneca Lake, reaches the Seneca River and flows into Cayuga Lake, continues on the Seneca River and meets up with the Oswego River.  The Oswego River runs into Lake Ontario and eventually the St. Lawrence River takes it the rest of the way to the Atlantic Ocean. A single drop of water spends about 18 years in Seneca Lake, and it takes about 25 years for a drop of water to travel from Glen Creek into the Atlantic Ocean."

Watkins Glen State Park has a 1.5 mile gorge trail that follows Glen Creek and descends over 400 feet through a beautiful gorge.

A ranger told me the town of Watkins Glen has at an elevation of 435 feet, and the Gorge Trail descends over 500 feet. He pointed out that the water descends more along the trail than it does the rest of the way to the Atlantic ocean!

The Gorge Trail includes around 800 steps, and was constructed by the Civil Conservation Corps during the FDR administration, after a big storm had run through the rea and caused damage to the earlier trail.

The gorge is beautiful... dare I say gorgeous, haha!  There are 18 waterfalls along the trail. I entered at the top entrance, descended to the visitor center at the bottom, and then hiked back up the trail to my car.

The gorge has some interesting rock layers and patterns -- thin shale on the walls, and designs worn into the rock along the water's edge.

A suspension bridge crosses the gorge, high above the main trail. There is a lily pond not too far from the bridge.

During bad weather, they close the entrance gates to the gorge trail.

I had a great time at Watkins Glen, and had plenty of energy to explore Ithaca next!

-- Ithaca Falls --

The town of Ithaca is at the base of Cayuga Lake, which is also one of the finger lakes. Ithaca is the home of Cornell University, and Ithaca Falls is easily accessible in the heart of Ithaca.

-- Buttermilk Falls State Park --

The town of Ithaca is also the home of Buttermilk Creek and Buttermilk Falls. Similar to Watkins Glen, Buttermilk Creek has a gorge and a series of falls. The largest of the falls, Buttermilk Falls, is at the bottom of the creek and is pictured below. 

Although Buttermilk Falls is the largest of the falls along the creek , I was more impressed with the beauty of many of the smaller falls, some of which are photographed below.

Several of the falls had an obvious pool at the bottom of the falls, as is visible in the following couple of photos. The pools look greener than the surrounding water, because the brown rock shows through the clear water in the shallower water.

I had a fantastic day enjoying the beauties of nature today! I didn't see a good place to spend the night around here... the parking lots said no overnight parking, and the closest campground I found is half way up one of the finger lakes. So I headed back to my familiar parking spot in Vestal for the night, between the Walmart and TGI Fridays.